The cost of government debt is immediate

There is no intention [by the US Government] to repay the debt or even to reduce the total amount of debt. This is one way that government debt is very different to private debt. Nobody would ever lend money to a private organisation unless there was a good reason to believe that the debt eventually would be repaid, but when it comes to the government the plan is for the total debt to grow indefinitely. It will grow faster during some periods than other periods, but it will always grow. Therefore, it makes no sense to agonise over how the debt will be repaid. It simply won’t be repaid or even reduced.

The current debt-based monetary system has been designed to expand … and expand … until it collapses and is replaced by something else. …

Every dollar added to the government’s debt pile results in a dollar less invested in the private sector. In effect, government debt accumulation adds to government spending at the expense of private-sector investment. This is a negative for economic progress, although it can give a short-term boost to economic activity in the same way that activity gets boosted by hurricane damage.

The US Government’s debt is around 21 trillion USD, but the net present value of its unfunded liabilities is variously reckoned by finance professors to be around 100 – 200 trillion USD. It’s this latter figure that is truly troubling.

The GDP of the US is 19 trillion USD. The US passed the point where it might realistically ever pay back its debt a decade or two ago.